Three major factors have shaped Sri Lanka’s modestly successful post-independence socio-economic development. First, by and large there were favourable ‘initial conditions’ at the time of independence.

The expansion of the e-commerce economy has given individual Chinese e-traders new opportunities to generate wealth and cultural capital. But it has also created a precarious condition in which they have had to adapt to the changing environment so as to ensure economic security. This paper draws on the results of over a year’s fieldwork in the city of Yiwu, an emergent e-commercial hub in Southeast China. It looks at the making of a “neoliberal” subjectivity among Chinese e-traders, against the background of rising information capitalism in the country.